Don’t give up

Kaleigh from Île-à-la-Crosse is on a journey to a healthy lifestyle all thanks to the Fitness 2j2 programming. Photo by Neave Pedersen

This spring is unlike any other spring any of us have experienced. How will we look back at this time and space? COVID-19 is affecting every aspect of our lives: health both physical and mental; lifestyle from our daily schedules and day to day activities; education, the closing of schools and the change to a more online concept; employment the loss of jobs and employment to the staying at home. In the end, we have more time to be with family, to be more connected, and an opportunity to have more time to ourselves.

Over the years of our community Fitness 2J2 programming, I have had the great opportunity to meet so many incredible people and to share with them in some of their journeys, both struggles and success, and some of my own. Our lives are connected through the shared goal of a healthy and positive lifestyle, which begins with fitness.

One of these success stories, whose journey has just begun, is that of my friend Kaleigh. She recently put out a post on Instagram showing a before and after picture of one year of coming back to our community 2J2 boot camps. I am proud of the determination and resiliency that she used to battle through some serious challenges, came back to a healthy and positive lifestyle, and to our Fitness 2j2 programming.

We first met in the fall of 2014 when she, her sister, and niece attended boot camps at St.Mary’s in Pleasant Hill. Kaleigh had just recently moved from her home in Ile ala Crosse to Saskatoon to start post-secondary. She attended our first Fitness Instructor Prep Program at the U of S and was starting to do some leading in our weekly sessions. As all our lives have challenges and disappointments thrown into it, so did Kaleigh’s. Her school program did not go as well as she had hoped, relationships failed, she had to battle depression and PTSD, weight gain, and alcohol dependency. Kaleigh did the hard work and steps of recovery, which some of us know can be at times overwhelming, and along the way she found herself. She is an amazing young woman who this past year graduated from the U of S and continues her journey. She is a positive and authentic person, who has tools now that she did not have six years ago. She is an example of how a healthy and positive lifestyle can change you physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. I am grateful to know Kaleigh and to share her story of success.

We truly can do so much more than we think we can. All we need is some encouragement and hope. Know that whatever you are experiencing now, it will get better. Don’t give up. There are others who will walk, jog, run with you and we look forward to sharing with you. Stay safe, stay healthy, be active. This is the way.

Fitness 2J2 is a socially responsible community-based health and wellness company. During this time of social distancing, 2J2 is providing no-cost Facebook Live fitness classes during the week, with workout and fitness challenges for all ages and abilities. Strong Healthy Proud.